Fence dilemma

10 years ago

My husband and I are having a picket fence installed around our back yard this spring or summer. Across our back yard lives an old couple whose back yard (which is about half the length of ours) is already enclosed with a chain link fence. Their fence is 4 feet tall, but because we own two dogs (one of which is large), we require our fence to be taller, and plan on having it built to a height of 5 feet. Because of this, we can't simply build off of their fence; instead, our fence will have to run parallel to theirs. This is going to result in a no man's land between the two (probably no more than 1 foot to 1.5 feet in width). I'm highly opposed to chemical weed control. Anyone have any suggestions for controlling weed growth in this hard to reach location?

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SolutionForSpaces

10 years ago

take out the grass, put heavy black plastic with a nice looking rock on top of plastic.

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Comments (6)

gtcircus
10 years ago
Or get with your neighbor to discuss in advance. You can also plant vines, such as wisteria to come up from the landscape fabric NOT PLASTIC and gently cover the to of your fence.
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inacrumbling
Original Author
10 years ago
The only problem I forsee in laying landscape fabric and mulch/rock in the space between the fences (which was my original idea) is getting in there to do it. And as for the vine idea, we already have a problem with sumac vine on the fence line, so I'd prefer not to add to my yard work by adding more vines to the mix.
User
10 years ago
Build it at least 4' away from their fence, with a gate. Then get in there and mow. Or, talk to your neighbor, and offer to replace that section of her fence with your higher fence. She just might like that solution rather than you attempting to ignore the fact that she exists at all.
inacrumbling
Original Author
10 years ago
I'm not attempting to ignore them. I like the idea of replacing that section of their fence completely, but that's also asking them to completely change the look of their yard on that side. Plus, I don't know if the fence company would even able to do that; from what we've heard, fence companies are pretty strict about property lines, and that section of our neighbor's fence is most certainly on their property and not ours.
inacrumbling
Original Author
10 years ago
Plus, they have a lot of established trees that butt right up against their fence on that side, and replacing the fence would require those trees to be removed.